Infinity War: The Aftermath
by cosmictrap
Summary: Picking up where Infinity War left off, the characters deal with their losses and try to come up with a possible way to clean up the mess Thanos left behind. They attempt to set aside their differences so that maybe Thanos could still be defeated, riding on Strange's last words. [Genres are not restricted to what's shown (FF doesn't allow many options)]
1. Chapter 1

_Major Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War. Saw the film three days ago, and I'm still not okay. Aside from the zillion questions I have, the very thought of how all people reacted to the losses, and how relationships would change made me so teary-eyed. I couldn't stop imagining stuff so I had to write it all down._

 _My very first Avengers' Fan Fic, so please be gentle and leave me some reviews, please! :) I'd like to know what you think about it._

* * *

 _ **Tony Stark**_

* * *

The debris was floating all around him and the smell of rotting metal was nearly suffocating. He could still feel where Peter held on to him moments before he… _disappeared._ The abject sense of helplessness he'd felt as Peter had cried was only amplifying in him.

 _I don't want to go._

Tony Stark had failed. For the first time in his life, he had failed and the realisation left him numb. For the first time since he'd made the suit, he found it rendering him breathless. The suit had never failed him. Never. But now it felt heavy on him and he wanted to take it off his person as soon as possible.

He started to remember telling the kid to go after the wizard, and was filled with a crushing sense of guilt. It had not been worth it, because ultimately the wizard was gone... and so was the kid. And it was all his fault. He dreaded what he would find back home.

"Friday," he breathed. "Get me on the phone with Pepper."

 _"I'm afraid Ms. Potts is out of connectivity range, Mr. Stark."_

That filled him with a mixture of relief and anguish at the same time. Relief because he would rather prolong finding out if Pepper was okay, because from this far out, if the call hadn't made it through, he wasn't sure what he would have done. Anguish, because he needed to see if she was okay as soon as possible.

"What planet are you from?"

Startled, he whipped his head around; he'd forgotten that he had company. He felt unsteady on his legs, and he wondered if he was imagining his vision blurring. He blinked, trying to keep his focus but felt his knees give away.

" _Earth_ ," he gasped, as he started to feel breathlessness take over him.

 _"_ Well, better get you there. You don't look so good," said the voice, sounding subdued and slightly bitter.

 _"Mr. Stark, your biochemical readings suggest that you are having a panic attack."_

"Thank you, Friday, I wouldn't have guessed," he rasped, as he fell to his knees, a hand on his chest as he tried to breathe deeply.

He felt two arms grip him, clumsily dragging him to he had no idea where. He wanted to ask, but he had no breath left for a question, and his mind wasn't forming coherent thoughts either. In his head, the images started with running with Pepper in the morning and ended with Peter _disappearing -_ he was not dead, he _couldn't_ be - in his arms.

 _How did it all go so wrong, so fast?_

He merely groaned as the vision of the destroyed planet turned into a haze and he felt the darkness creep over him.

When he woke up again, he was greeted by a familiar sight - bright white hospital lights blinding his sight. The physical weight on his chest seemed to be gone and he realised he was in an old t-shirt and a pair of flannel pyjamas.

He started to sit up, but Pepper was next to him in a flash, hand on his chest, pushing him back down.

"You need to rest," she said softly, and he could practically hear the tears in her voice.

Relief flooded him first; she was okay. She wasn't gone, and she was still here with him. But as the relief ebbed away, the questions came back to the surface, along with a sense of helplessness. Dread at what he'd find here, and a part of him wanted to just go back to sleep; avoid it all.

"Someone brought you here," Pepper said nervously. "In a weird looking pod. Part machine, part… _alien_ , I think."

"Right," he muttered, vaguely recollecting the blue skinned woman with pitch black eyes. She seemed to know the others - _The Guardians of the Galaxy_.

 _Mr. Lord._

He waited for the rage to come, but it didn't. He felt too tired for it, and a small part of him understood his rage. Admittedly he may not have known him very well, but from the little he had gathered, he understood.

"Pepper?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry," he said in response, reaching out to hold her hand, gently stroking her knuckles with his thumb.

"You should have come back," she said tearfully. "You should've come back when I asked you to."

"I know, honey," he murmured. "I know. I'm really sorry."

They stayed in silence for sometime, Pepper now seated next to him. The doctor had just visited, not that Tony needed a doctor, and had, as all doctors do, suggested some more rest. Tony, like always, had rolled his eyes at him, only refraining from passing a comment because of the worry on Pepper's face.

"How bad is it?" he asked after the doctor left.

"It looks pretty bad," she replied, biting her lower lip. "A lot of people just… they just _disintegrated_ Tony! I don't understand what is happening. It was all over the news and people just died as _we watched._ I couldn't reach anyone, not Vision, Natasha, or… anyone."

Tony sighed, and stared at the ceiling, still trying to burn away the image of Peter _disappearing_ from his mind. He could feel her eyes on him, looking at him the way she did when she knew something was up and waited patiently for him to say what was on his mind.

"The kid… _disappeared_ , Pepper," said Tony, swallowing thickly as his voice cracked a little.

"What?" she gasped in shock.

"I-I watched… I held him as he cried and just disappeared," he said and Pepper had moved to sit on the bed, lying on his chest as he held her.

"Oh, Tony, I'm so sorry," she whispered, feeling the thrum of the arc reactor in his chest against her cheek. She looked up at him, gazing at the ceiling with the remorse clearly written on his face.

"I need to visit his aunt… And tell her… _If_ she's… not disappeared too," he muttered. "What am I going to tell her? How will I explain-"

"Tony, it's not your fault," she said quietly.

"You don't know that," he said, closing his eyes.

"Yes," she said firmly. "I do. When you wear that suit and leave, a part of me knows that you might not come back. It's just… comes with your job, I suppose," she chuckled humourlessly. "I'm sure she'll… understand. She won't blame you."

"She won't," agreed Tony. " _I_ blame me."

Before Pepper could contradict him again, he started to sit up, as did Pepper.

"Tony…"

"Pepper, I need to know," he said. "I need to _see_."

She sighed with resignation and stood up, watching as Tony straightened his shirt and looked about the small cupboard in the room for jeans. Finding one, he slipped them on and started to head out, when Pepper said, "Happy took the suit home, by the way, if you want to fly out."

"No," he said slowly, pausing in the doorway. "I'll take a cab."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Please, _please_ bear with me, and let me know what you think :) You must forgive in case of inaccuracies because I saw the movie (much against my wishes) only once. I wish I could've seen it more times, but my mother - _"What do you want to watch it twice for!?"_**

* * *

 _ **Valkyrie**_

* * *

Her eyes fluttered open and she saw that the glass of the pod she was in was nearly frosted over, but she couldn't make out any light at all outside of the blinking lights of her pod controls.

" _Damn, that Trickster,"_ she thought annoyedly, squirming in her seat. "I knew he couldn't be trusted. He-"

Her thoughts halted abruptly as pieces of her hazed memory began to fit into place. She remembered the spaceship looming infront of theirs, nearly fifty times the size. She remembered the people screaming and Thor turning to her urgently as recognition crossed Loki's face.

 _"You have to take them and leave!"_

 _"You're not the boss of me! Don't tell me what to do! I will stay here and fight!"_

 _"You don't understand, if something were to happen to me or Loki, the people will need-"_

 _"Brother, it's futile. She's not going to change her mind."_

 _"Yes, Your Majesty. Maybe you should listen to your brother."_

 _"But I-"_

 _"Brother, may I handle this?"_

 _"Excuse me? Did you just say "handle"? Who do you-"_

 _"I'm sorry,"_ and the last thing she remembered was Loki looking at her apologetically as he reached out to touch her forehead.

Fully awake now, she felt her stomach sink at the million different possibilities running through her mind. She swallowed thickly and tried wiping the frost off from the inside and some of the miss gave way, but there was still no telling where she was. And where the others were.

She eyed the controls in front of her, studying each of them carefully. She apprehensively pressed a button, hoping it wouldn't eject her out of her pod and breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the pod jerk forward a little bit.

 _Okay so_ ** _that_** _makes this thing move._

 _There's got to be a communication device in here somewhere._

And seconds later, figuring out how the controls worked, she'd radioed in on a few Asgardians and set about to round them up. After she was sure all survivors were found, she'd worry about how to get them to Midgard, which was the only possible place _he'd_ go.

 _If he'd survived, at all._

Besides, the Asgardians were to find a new home on that planet; it's what the Odinsons had wanted. So that's where she would go.

Enroute, all she could think about was where the rest of her people were and if they were okay.

* * *

 ** _May Parker_  
**

* * *

May had prepared Peter's favourite lunch and was waiting for him to return from his field trip. She had turned the TV on to pass time and that was when she saw it; a circular form descending from the sky and hovering over the New York skyline. She jumped to her feet and ran to the window, staring at it for some time. She thought she could see some forms hovering around, but she could be mistaken; she wasn't sure.

Her attention was brought back to the TV with the voice of a reporter and some panicked screams. She caught sight of the familiar red and gold suit, and felt a mixture of both relief and concern. She knew where Tony was, Peter would be, but at least that meant that Peter wasn't alone. Soon enough, she caught sight of him swinging away and out of the frame. When after a few seconds a strangely dressed man, who was drawing golden patterns in the air flicked his hand, there was a small scream and the TV scream went static.

She watched the flickering black and white speckles with gnawing worry before turning back to the window just in time to see what she was now sure to be a spaceship, leave the skyline. Despite it being gone, she could still hear the disturbances down in the streets. She looked at the door hopefully before sitting at the lunch table alone, knowing in her heart that Peter wouldn't be back home for lunch.

She was proud of what Peter did in his "downtime", but she didn't like it. The day she had found out, she had been really angry and had cried for at least an hour before telling him off. But she could tell how much it meant to him, so she had reluctantly agreed to allow it; she knew there would be no point in "disallowing" him because he would've gone ahead with his plans anyway. It was better if she was in on his whereabouts and what he was upto, rather than being kept in the dark. It didn't help, knowing what he was dealing with, but it did help knowing where he was. Everyday was a question of whether or not he'd return, and she would find herself lying awake in bed till she heard him come back in.

That particular afternoon, deciding that Peter would be... _late_... she sat down to have her lunch, eyes fixed at the little bit of the cityscape she could see out of her watched the circular form ascending back into the sky.

Hours later, Tony Stark would knock on her door, cutting a sorry figure. But she didn't know that just yet.

* * *

 **A/N: I know it's going slow, but I'm trying to build up to something here. I'm trying to include as many characters as possible, including those that the MCU didn't explain or touch upon, so I hope you guys like it, and I hope you have just a little bit of patience to put up with the pace.**

 **I know some of y'all were looking forward to the May-Tony interaction, but I wanted to try to make that a whole chapter, so I promise you it's coming in the next chapter.**

 **Please do leave reviews :) Including criticism because I'd like to see what I can do better.**

 **P.S. What do you guys think of Nebula x Valkyrie?**


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